The Effectiveness of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift
"A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in
Ireland from being a burden to their parents or country, and for
making them beneficial to the public" - Jonathan Swift 1729.
In reading this you will discover the answer to the above question in
three parts;
· How effective is it as an argument
· How effective is it as a piece of information
· How effective is it as satire
"A Modest Proposal" first appeared in public in 1729, Swift wrote this
article after all of his previous suggestions had been rejected by the
Irish authorities. Swift felt the English government had
psychologically exiled him and this greatly added to the rage he felt
over the way the Irish People were treated or rather mistreated by the
English. Although Swift's highest and most prominent concerns were for
his own class, the Anglo-Irish, he in the end spoke for the nation as
a whole.
Swift defined satire as;
'A sort of glass wherein the holders do generally discover everybody's
face but their own, which is the chief reason for that kind of
reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended
with it."
Swift presents his "Proposal" as an entirely reasonable suggestion to
aid the Irish, he enumerates the many benefits, counters the
objections many may have, uses rhetoric reasoning and proves his
humanitarianism views.
Swift has written in considerable detail over the degree of poverty in
Ireland, he draws attention to the causes of it obliquely and proves
in great detail that his "Proposal" will work and in which ways it
does work.
Ireland was a colony of England; it was economically, politically and
militarily dependent on ...
... middle of paper ...
...tire
Swift has successfully drawn attention to the extremely dire economic
state of Ireland and the incompetence of the British government to
solve or even begin to contemplate, in Swift's mind, these problems.
This "Proposal" should be viewed as a fictional work, designed to
entertain the upper-class whilst enlightening them upon the conditions
of poverty in their own country.
This "Proposal" could be viewed as an attempt to change the ways in
which both England and Ireland viewed the state of Ireland, which was
in a lethargic state. It is masterful in its own nature, the way in
which Swift has challenged the prospect of changing lives and living
conditions, while entertaining the audience at the same time.
The true irony in "A Modest Proposal" lies not in analysing the minute
details, but rather in the context of the "Proposal" as it is written.
“A Modest Proposal” was written in 1729 by a satirical author by the name of Jonathan Swift. Swift studied at the University of Oxford and was also know for his popular writing in Gulliver’s Travel. The purpose for his satire “A Modest Proposal” was to enlighten the citizens of Ireland about their hardship and suffering. He informed them about their scares of food, money, and property, but provided a possible solution to their problem. To persuade the people Swift adopts a comforting and friendly tone to his audience for the people to react to his solution.
In the time frame that Swifts’ A Modest Proposal was written Ireland was going through political, economic, and religious struggles. In 1729 England had contrived, with the help of Irish venality, to wreck Ireland’s merchant marine, agriculture, and wool industry. Prostitutes in Swift’s paper are having kids like senseless people, but yet they can’t afford to feed them. Jonathan Swift proposes that his people should sell the babies and eat them. He thinks this would help solve the problem of over population. Swift tried to give his people pamphlets on how to fix the problem that was plaguing their country, but they ignored them. Swift says “These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants.”(1) Swift proposes that the mothers sell the babies for 8 shillings; the rich would find the child to be a delicacy and the extra money would go to the landlord. So everyone would benefit from this proposal. He does this as a way of making his people aware of what is going on in their
A Modest Proposal, written by Jonathan Swift, proposes both an outrageous idea and real solutions for helping Ireland manage their overpopulated country and eliminate poverty in 1729. Swift incorporates this idea to capture the attention of the people in Ireland and England, and prove to them they need to take action. He adopts a serious yet sarcastic tone in order to convince the citizens and readers their country needs change.
During the 18th century Ireland was on a very serious crisis. Jonathan Swift decides to write “A Modest Proposal” as a satirical response to this crisis. In that essay he gives a solution for each of the problems that Ireland was having during that time. The main points that he wanted to discuss were domestic abuse, over population, poverty, thieves, and the lack of food. This crisis lead the great nation of Ireland into economical struggles. By all of this problems, the parents couldn’t maintain their children so they needed a solution. Now this incredible man comes with a solution that is going to blow your mind, Swift decides to give them a proposal. It was a really uncommon one but very helpful for them. This proposal is going to stabilize once again the country of Ireland.
In a Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift, the main objective was to draw. attention to the plight of the Irish people and motiva. In a Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift, the main objective was to draw attention to the downfall of the Irish people and motivate readers to find a workable solution. Unlike most essays, this is. written for the reader to see what the narrator is expressing. Swift shows the readers his proposal through irony.
Irishmen, educated, father and husband. All these titles make Jonathan Swift more than qualified to be the author of “A Modest Proposal,” published in the 1729. It discussed the astonishing poverty that was sweeping the Irish nation, his home country, during the early 18th century, which in his opinion was not the nations own doing. He adopts a sarcastic tone in order to display to the Irish people the injustices cast upon them, and to inspire his countrymen to rise up from poverty and stand up to those who held them down.
Through the creation of a pompous, highly educated and sophisticated proposer, in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal, the targeted audience, the absentee landlords and parliament of England, and the reader naturally identify with the proposer. The proposer’s rigorous logic, serious and cynical tone deduces the ghastly proposition of cannibalism for economic, political, moral, and nationalistic gain. However, through the targeted audience’s identification with the proposer, Swift is able to propose the ironic humanity of his satirical proposal and thus indict colonial landlordism in Ireland and in Enlightenment ideals. Swift’s proposer’s tone is used for both the ostensible and actual purpose of the proposal; through the adherence to the ideals of the Enlightenment, which would be that of the targeted audience, Swift is able to critique the ideology of logic and rationality as fundamental to morality in the proposal.
According to the novel, Jonathan Swift believes that the children in Ireland have no purpose in society and they are the ones who are bringing down the economy. A Modest Proposal is essentially an attempt to "find out a fair, cheap, and easy Method" for converting the starving children of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth." Across Ireland poor children are living in filth and destitution because their families are too poor to keep them fed an...
In his satire, A Modest Proposal, Swift utilizes hyperbole and sarcasm to bring awareness of the unacceptable conditions of the Irish poor in the 18th century.
Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal is a shocking satire that discusses the dire poverty in Ireland. It says if one is born poor they will stay that way unless society puts them to use. Children are food to be eaten. In an economic slump children will be used to feed and clothe Ireland’s population. Swift’s purpose for writing A Modest Proposal was to call attention to the exploiting and oppressing by the English to the Irish. He wanted to shock his readers by proposing his “modest” proposal. He presents selling babies as food to reduce overpopulation. This causes the reader to disregard this suggestion. Swift wanted to raise awareness on the issue that was haunting Ireland. Throughout A Modest Proposal, Swift effectively uses verbal irony, diction, and sentence structure to achieve his purpose of making people realize that there are problems in society that needed to be handled in a reasonable manner. He also wanted to help advance the country’s trade, provide for infants, relieve the poor and help the rich. Swift ultimately wanted to get people thinking about actual solutions that could solve their current problems.
Jonathan Swift is the speaker in the story, A Modest Proposal. He is also the author of many other books and stories. In the text of A Modest Proposal, Swift addresses what he believes to be a big issue in the magnificent country of Ireland, Dublin to be exact. Therefore, he proposes a solution to the problem, however, the solution is not what we would call humane, orthodox, reasonable, or even one that we would consider performing today. Swift wrote this piece for anyone that can read and comprehend what the text implies.
If Jonathan Swift had written a serious piece simply espousing his true beliefs he would not have received as much feedback, due to the fact that there were already informational advertisements at the time and nobody was interested in reading them. The only thing that would get the people 's attention was something that would create a lasting impression, so he wrote a satirical piece with trenchant humor and mochary. “A Modest Proposal” surprised people and got them thinking about the condition of the poor in Ireland and what should be done to solve it. For example Swift states that “those who are thrifty” can use the carcass of the infant for ladies’ gloves or gentlemen’s boots. This itself can help those reading the piece to begin to think about possible solutions to the substantial issues involving the poor in Ireland. He also proposes that children that are fourteen should be consumed as well so the poor don’t have to go hungry and that it would limit the number of breeders, in an attempt to illustrate the extremity of the circumstances. His sarcastic way of joking enlisted fear in the poor and concern in the rich, helping them realise the drastic issue present in the
A “Modest Proposal” is written by a man who had been exiled from England and forced to live among Irish citizens for many years during which he observed major problems in Ireland that needed a solution. The writer of this piece is Jonathan Swift, and in his proposal, “The Modest Proposal,” Swift purpose is to offer a possible solution to the growing problem of the homeless and poverty stricken women and children on the streets of Ireland. Swift adopts a caring tone in order to make his proposal sound reasonable to his audience, trying to convince them that he truly cares about the problems facing Ireland’s poor and that making the children of the poor readily available to the rich for entertainment and as a source of food would solve both the economic and social problems facing Ireland.
This essay will have no value unless the reader understands that Swift has written this essay as a satire, humor that shows the weakness or bad qualities of a person, government, or society (Satire). Even the title A Modest Proposal is satirical. Swift proposes using children simply as a source of meat, and outrageous thought, but calls his propo...
This essay by Jonathan Swift is a brutal satire in which he suggests that the poor Irish families should kill their young children and eat them in order to eliminate the growing number of starving citizens. At this time is Ireland, there was extreme poverty and wide gap between the poor and the rich, the tenements and the landlords, respectively. Throughout the essay Swift uses satire and irony as a way to attack the indifference between classes. Swift is not seriously suggesting cannibalism, he is trying to make known the desperate state of the lower class and the need for a social and moral reform in Ireland.